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Starter HELP!

morgs_payge's picture
morgs_payge

Starter HELP!

I started my sourdough starter on 09/28 and it still does not double in size. help 🥲

For the first 12 days I was feeding a 1:1:1 ratio (specifically 20 grams) every 24 hours and discarding the extra before feeding. It was rising, however, it was not doubling nor falling. Someone recommend feeding the starter and then waiting 12 hours and check if there were bubbles on the sides/top and if there were to “let it go” without feeding and to check again at 24 hours and if there were to again “let it go” without feeding. I fed it on 10/10 and followed the steps and finally fed again on 10/13. This definitely helped it ferment I think but it still was not doubling.

Someone then recommended to add a small amount of natural honey to give the starter a boost. On 10/15, I fed as normal at 8PM and then put a small portion in a different jar with some honey and when I checked the next morning at 6:30AM the starter with the honey doubled and my normal jar without honey rose about 50% (not a full 100% for it to be considered doubled).

Yesterday morning at 8AM I moved the starter with honey into a Weck jar and fed a 1:2:2 ratio because someone said it was a good idea to peek feed and give more flour and water; I did not feed my other jar of starter without the honey.

The pictures from yesterday were at 7:30PM, the starter with honey in the Weck jar doubled and began to fall as you can see from the fall lines. The other pictures from yesterday are the starter without honey, it has not doubled and has not fallen.

I asked a different forum and was told multiple different things:

  • Completely start over.
  • Don’t start over and go back to a 1:1:1 ratio and only do 24 hour feeds until it is consistently rising and falling within 4-6 hours.
  • Don’t start over but do a 1:2:2 ratio every 24 hours.
  • Never use honey.
  • Only use honey if your starter is years old and you need to revive it.

Is my starter established? Can I bake yet? Should I add honey now in each feed? What should I do??

Additional information:

- I use King Arthur unbleached AP flour and warm filtered water.

 - I am using fridge filtered water and the filter is a multi-layer carbon filter and it does not use reverse osmosis.

 - Honey is from an AZ local honey bee farm.

 - I live in Phoenix, AZ so a VERY dry climate.

 - House temperature is a constant 73°F.

 - Starter is on counter close to a window that faces east (about 2ft away) but not on the window sill.